First a little context.. I've been on the django-dev mailing list for quite a while .. since about 1.0. I'm usually relatively quiet unless I think I have a good insight about an issue. It's been a great source of learning, but also a good way to notice recurring patterns.
On the other hand, I've also been working on a Django development environment for the last few months. It will cut down a lot of annoying, redundant and harder parts that keeps the bar of Django development so high. Ultimately the goal is to bring it to a point where I can hire a designer, set up a Linux virtual machine on his workstation and make him work on Django sites with a few simple commands. He has no needs to know about Python, buildout, package management and other stuff like that. The project is actually a lot more than that and I will eventually announce it officially [1], but that's not the point of my email today. Today I feel the need to share an idea that came from the context described above and that's been in the back of my head for the last couple of weeks. This idea could; - Make new features testing a lot more thorough before they are merged them to trunk - Make it possible to actually measure a feature's popularity before merging them to trunk - Make it a lot easier for the community to test new features and use them long before they hit the trunk - Allow people to actually use features that has been rejected for whatever reason (and that aren't implementable as third party) - Increase django's development pace and contributions And this idea is just: a patch server. Imagine a site where developers can browse, upload, rate and comment patches. Something like django snippets, but instead of snippets, it's patches for django. A developer can upload a patch (linked or not to a ticket), specify the django version with which it is compatible and add revisions. Other users can rate, comment and propose revisions. Finally, a buildout extension (or other automation mechanisms) could be created and would allow to easily load and apply patches at installation time. In my dreams, applying a patch to a django installation would be simple as editing a buildout.cfg and add those lines: [django_patches] email_username = http://server.com/user/email_username/ rev=12 no_admin = http://server.com/anotheruser/no_admin/ It would make the future development of django a lot more community centric, more tested and more discussed. To eager developers who wants new feature implemented in core, we could just say "go on, make a patch and prove your point" instead of debating it on a mailing list. Other people could then try it, use it and improve it before it is implemented in core. Like I said, just a crazy idea .. or a cool GSoC project ? :) Unfortunately I'm too busy to make it myself.. But if a majority think it's a good idea and some developers wants to make it happen, I will find a server to host it. [1] For the curious, the client part is getting quite stable lately. We use it on a couple of projects and the number of saved keystrokes is pretty amazing so far: https://github.com/h3/django-duke-client -- Maxime Haineault -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Django developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers?hl=en.
